September 11, 2022
Day 11: Les Eyzies to Gramat
September 11 is a special day for us. 20 years ago this was our very first day in France. Our friends, Barb & Lew, had twisted my arm and convinced me we’d love cycling in France. Fast forward 20 years and we live here! I did a lot of contemplation on this during today’s ride.
Once again, we are completely off route from the book. We’ve spent a lot of time over the years riding in this area and know it quite well. So, once again trying to avoid riding over 100k and keeping to new roads, we set off on our adventure of the day.
Today’s Sunday … so we grabbed a sandwich and pastries at the boulangerie on our way out of town.
We think it’ll be a quiet day with no real distractions along the route. We’re happy to be on the quiet and less-traveled roads bypassing the busy tourist towns of Sarlat and Souillac. Then we found our first surprise of the day, the village of Meyrals must have had the fete last weekend and the remnants were scattered about the field.
After wandering around the field of scarecrows, we went into town. Such a cute Dordogne village.
This photo was posted outside the town church. We worked our way back from the church so the same location. The little building in front no longer has a dormer window. Cameras have improved too; we can’t seem to get the same looking distance.
Once we rode into the outskirts of Souillac, traffic felt frantic. Souillac is along the autoroute, too, which adds to the heavier traffic. After a kilometer or so (felt like more) we jumped onto a beautiful bike path and we’re able to ride it for quite a long time.
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Once we were back on regular roads, we came across the second surprise of the day. The Garmin told us to turn left and this was sitting on the corner.
We had to stop and check it out up close!
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Okay, back to riding. Chuck commented that one of my farm roads didn’t show any cyclists riding it based on the heat maps. Did I make a mistake?! Funny thing was that we were riding on a fully signed bike route. Then we rode into the village of Milhac and I said, “we’ve been here before”. Sure enough we’d ridden this road back in September of 2020 when we went to the officially cancelled 2020 International Tandem Rally out of Salviac. Only 4 couples went and rode the routes that year.
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We didn’t venture through the church because we did it last time. Onward!
Melancholy is setting in - we’ve been in this area of France several times , but always with our friends Barb & Lew. The funny thing is that I realized we were here with them the first time 20 years ago - okay, we’re off by two days - September 13, 2002.
Barb & I went to this moulin and saw a demonstration- she translated it for me.
Temperatures are rising, so we didn’t spend time here. We still have about 10k to finish. We arrived and had an air conditioned room and a great dinner.
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Stats: 84.4 kilometers 1,286 meters elevation
Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 1,083 km (673 miles)
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